Notes from gameplay:
- Main menu music is (sometimes) lovely. I like how it warps and distorts but it might do that a bit too often.
- The panning background is a clever way to make something animated and visually exciting without a large investment of work. Smart choice!
- Nice options menu, I like mouse sensitivity as an option
- Would be nice to be able to review controls from within the game
- Very retro graphics
- Nice text over the lantern telling me how to interact
- Nice jump scare from the birds flying up!
- This Templar is creepy! He keeps shifting and warping!
- Unclear if the last line of dialog with the Templar ("We'll do our best...") is supposed to be the player speaking or should the player "Stay here and keep watch."?
- Dialog doesn't close when I walk away from the Templar
- Music is minimalistic and creepy. Sets me on edge in a good way
- The bookcase in the cabin would be a nice place to have f/interact to let the player read some lore/backstory about the region
- Is the map on the wall here significant? Nice clue
- Could add f/interact to the tombstones to include some flavor text about people who died to build suspense
- Well-written dialog text
- Uh oh, found a dead dude. Ooh, free lantern!
- Don't seem to need the lanterns, do I? Can see pretty well without them
- Action/energy bar is simple and clean. Easy to understand and I like that I have to juggle different choices in how to use it
- AHHH the monster got me. Shark-faced meanie. He looks rather similar to the soldiers, so I thought he was an ally at first!
- Hmm respawned outside the cave but my inventory is empty :(
- Can't seem to run away fast enough :( I seem to be able to sprint fine except when the monster appears - then I need a full energy bar to be able to start sprinting
- Sometimes the first letter of dialog is being cut off, eg "rave one" instead of "Brave one"
- Need some more visual details, story text, things to find in the cave to make the walking more exciting
- Oh, 1/4 soldiers found. Somehow that didn't trigger before - maybe interacting with the lantern overrode discovering the soldier?
- OHHH MAAAN, I hear the monster roaring distantly but I can't see it anywhere, just sitting here spinning in circles trying to see it coming!
Overall this was fun and did a great job of creating suspenseful ambience - the audio in particular was standout for this, and the low lighting and limited field of view helped contribute to the atmosphere. I think the monster is too punishing and I pretty much instantly died every time I found him. Having to go back to the village from the start and collect inventory again made it a bit tedious to keep trying more rounds after the first few I did. Some more interaction in the cave and toning down the monster a bit would make the game more engaging, but overall this was a wonderful work! Great job, very spooky!